Garment carriers are well known as an efficient means for transporting garments which are mounted on hangers, and have found widespread use amongst both corporate and personal travelers. Garment carriers are preferable to garment bags in that with garment carriers each of the garments is supported on a respective hanger which keeps the garment relatively wrinkle-free, as compared to garment carriers in which a number of garments are folded and placed in a common bag.
With one type of prior art garment carrier, each of the garments, while supported on their respective hangers, is placed inside a garment cover with the hook portion of each of the individual hangers extending through an opening in the upper end of the cover, and the lower portion of the hangers with garments thereon residing within the cover. The garments are transported by manually grasping the plurality of hangers by their hooks which extend through the upper end of the cover. This design suffers numerous shortcomings, the most particular of which is that the hooks of the hangers dig into the hand, making transport of the garments for any significant time very uncomfortable. The discomfort may become intolerable if the garments have substantial weight.
To alleviate the discomfort associated with gripping and supporting the garments by their hanger hooks, other designs have provided a support hoop permanently affixed to the interior of the cover near its upper end. Each of the hooks of the hangers on which a garment is supported is received in the support hoop with the garments hanging within the cover. A strap is affixed to the upper end of the cover, by which the garment carrier can be lifted to allow the garments to be transported comfortably. This design requires that the upper portion of the cover, at the location of the support hoop and carrying strap, be reinforced to withstand tearing of the cover during transport. The requirement of the reinforcement to the cover adds considerably to the cost of manufacturing garment carriers of this design, as compared with the aforementioned design having simply a cover with an opening in its upper end for passage of the hanger hooks therethrough. The reinforcement also adds undesirable weight to the garment carrier. While the cover may, alternatively, be made heavier to withstand the load of the garments, this also would add considerably to the expense of producing the garment carrier, as well as adding further undesirable weight to the garment carrier. Furthermore, there are additional manufacturing expenses associated with this design attributable to the requirements of affixing the support hoop within the cover, and affixing a support hook to the cover by which the garments can hang from a coat rack or the like in a conventional manner.
It is desirable to provide a garment carrier which combines the beneficial attributes of being simple and inexpensive to manufacture, with allowing for comfortable gripping and transport of the garment carrier.